Last week, we asked our geomancer to get his feng shui compass out and let us know how Chinese financial markets will fare in the year of the rabbit. He was busy, as it turns out, so we just made it up. (This is more or less the same method he uses, so the accuracy of the predictions should be unaffected.)
Of our four interpretations, 44% of readers agreed with the one that said this lunar year will be marked by volatility, due to the nervous nature of the rabbit. Remarkably, this is what CLSA also predicted in its Feng Shui Index report, among other things, and for different reasons.
We also proposed that the characteristics of the rabbit might be good for share prices, in imitation of a hopping rabbit. That didn’t sound very convincing when we wrote it, and readers were similarly unmoved. Just 17% agreed and the Hang Seng index duly fell 1.5% on the first day of the lunar year.
Even fewer liked our breeding rabbit prediction; a mere 13% agreed that Asian companies would indulge in a spree of outward M&A, watching their operations grow like proud parents. However, our prediction that rabbit stew would be on the menu this year, thanks to a bumper crop of unwanted pets, was more popular, with 26% backing that option. Pet shops in Hong Kong and other Chinese cities reported brisk business in the run-up to the holiday, but we hope that this prediction does not come true. Rather, we hope that the year of the rabbit will bring prosperity and good health to take care of the bunnies.
Kung hei fat choi
Photo by AFP.
